Nevermind

 I thought we are heading towards spring... then I thought wait a minute, we haven't had our end of March/beginning of April snowstorm. Welll.

So no swimming yet?

I just don't get it

 I really don't understand how blogger/google accounts work. On my laptop I've been kicked out from this blog. Here on my phone I can log in and add posts. Can't kept logged in so that I can comment on others' blogs.

Deers, daily sight.

 As most of Europe is enjoying full spring, here in the backwoods it's still a dream.

But it is still beautiful. We had a small snowstorm today, now sky is clear and temperature is going down. It was -8C and still getting colder. (little black dot is 'Suma)

That is my forest. It's not dense and dark, but airy and light, and it's something I love. Here are my roots growing, and I hope I can pass this to my grandchildren; my grandfather bought this forest after the war, he has lost everything. His house (my father's home) was built with trees from this forest. This gives me food, and this is my safe place. Yes, I do hug my trees.

Snow was only knee high in the woods, but in the open it was up to my waist. Not fun, not at all. Few weeks and there will be no snow? Even if I don't say it out loud, I'm quite tired of this winter thing. I would like to have spring and warming soil beneath my feet. I'd like to plant seeds to grow.

Ys is doing fine, his papers (virtual) will be transported to adults neurological department now, so far he's been under the children's department. His meds are working fine, he is no longer gaining weight (actually, he's lost some which s good).

Sys is having his exams this spring, and D is doing her final courses. If everything goes as planned, they will be graduating this spring! D has been dating a lovely girl, and loves the big city.

I've been baking. First it was a need, few BIG bills to pay so didn't want to spend any money, and second - I had a lot of flours to use before they spoil. 

My fresh yeast has been in the freezer for four years, I wasn's sure if it had survived:

I left it there a bit longer and it was foaming all over the place! Yup, IT'S ALIVE!!!

Later I found some dry yeast, best before 9/2019. Weeellll. It's alive, too.

Weekend shift

 I usually work only on week days, and on office hours. Weeeellll, that's a bit flexible to say, because I quite often stretch my days to Portuguese or Irish office hours. During the winter it doesn't matter, there's nothing I can do outside anyway, winter is time to hunker down and enjoy warmth of my home.

Sometimes I need to work at different times. This weekend was one of those times. It was ok, my hours were long of course, but it is what it is. It is quite peculiar to walk through stations in the late night or early morning hours, it is a complete different people living in night than in bright daylight.

This will be a very long winter. I begun on October, and seems to drag on forever. We were prepared for a long winter, but this has been extraordinary long and cold. We had twice the amount of firewood, and unfortunately even this hasn't been enough! Right now I'm sitten by my fireplace enjoying the warmth of burning real fire - it is so different heat from any other heat.

O by the way, due to several reasons this is going to be a VERY tight year financially. My paid salaries will be down 5k€ from what it was last year (including raising income tax). So we will eat trough last of our savings? I will get our car loans paid this year, and that leaves some extra for my budget. Let's hope there will be no extra expenses coming...

It's been cold

Most of the world is suffering hottest years ever. Not here, this tiny spot on the world map has been much colder than usually - it's only around 20 million people who have been affected (few countries).

But it means I'm hauling wood in and burning it in our wood burners - in stove, in a big heat reserving fireplace, in sauna stove and in my little constant burning fireplace. We were prepared for a cold winter and expensive electricity, it's cheaper for us this year than it was last winter, but it still takes an indecent chunk of our income. Last spring and summer I was able to save a nice sum of money, but it was all vanished by the end of the year (I know where it all went, and it was all the expenses I had saved it for). We've had some very tight years because of covid and hb's fall and injuries (he was on sick leave for few months early 2021) and of course due restrictions my income has been a bit smaller that it could've been.

But we are still on surface, not sinking.

I wouldn't mind loosing few kgs, but unfortunately my cooking keeps getting better and better. Today I made a stir fry using just ordinary cabbage (no pak choy or any other fancy named veggie), carrots and sweet pepper (and of course garlic). A slice of a cabbage head had been in the fridge for about month? and before that it was two months in my cold/cool entrance hall (a small room with only one heater fan keeping it from going near zero C) so it was about the time to use it. Sauce was made by the most simple things, soy sauce, cola, corn starch. Some seasoning and that's it. We ate it wit fettucine, not even noodles and it was so good! For teenage boys I fried some pork (freezer) but it really didn't even need that.

Today were back down to -17 decrees (celsius) and tomorrow even colder. On Tuesday evening lowest was -29. And let me tell you it is way too cold even for me. I'm quite happy 'Suma doesn't like that cold either. But the amount of cat litter...🙀

it's a new year already?

 I never seem to have enough time to write. I start and then after few weeks I find my text unpublished just lying there, forgotten.

There's been a lot. I went to see Queen- musical with hb's nephew's wife. She's nice, not my "type" if I may say so, but on the other hand, I don't do people much anyways. But she 's only one I thought might like musical like that. I loved every moment of that show, I just don't go out often to do things like that anymore. And she loved it! Perfect!

I went to see Fallen leaves, it was a special screening for our office. I quite liked the film, went there with my colleague who I knew would appreciate a Kaurismäki-film. I think this is the best film he has made so far. The film was moving, funny - it did start veeery slowly but it was worth the suspension 😁   I know many people will not get it. I loved the dog, of course. And I think it is worth mentioning than someone is able to tell a whole story in less than two hours! I will NOT go to see Killers of the flower moon, just can't cope with nearly four hour film.

Then I ate an elephant, figuratively. You know, piece by piece. I bought an armchair for my sister for her 30th birthday and she will be 35 soon. It didn't have any cover, therefore it was dirty cheap even at Ikea. I promised to sew a cover, and promised several times... At first she didn't need the chair, because they were living in a small flat and there was no room for the chair. Then they moved to my grandmother's flat (when she moved to assisted living and then to nursing home) and they might have had room for that chair, but it was nod necessity. And then she moved to the other side of the field. Finally my sister brought me a bagful of upholstery velvet in petrol green. Very pretty fabric! I draw patterns, cut pieces, made mistake and hid the evidence. Then I had to continue, because the fabric was in the middle of my dining table - it was there so that I wouldn't be able to forget it.

So I made a new cut for the piece I had cut upside down (you need to be very careful with upholstery velvet to cut it the right way... I wasn't). I sew some seams, needed to take some apart again and hide that all again. Then I put on my big girl pants and made it: seam by seam, stich by stich I made the cover and FINALLY was able to deliver it just in time for Christmas.

I made only few Christmas presents. For d I knitted a hat, mittens and socks from acrylic yarn. She can't wear wool (itchy) but acrylic is ok. Number one needed a medieval hood (not! with liripipe) and I had some leftover wool from ys's hood. Because wool fabric is very itchy, I made lining from an old bed sheet. My sister asked for dish clothes and flannel pieces to use instead of kitchen roll (I've made those for her before so she knew she could ask me to do them). So I made about 20 pieces of flannel, 12 out of christmassy print and then another dozen out of flower print. And knitted half a dozen dish clothes. Or rags, whatever.

On Christmas Day I knitted a pair of socks to os (he was wearing an old pair with holes in). Sys got a telescope and because it's cold outside he needed mittens and there was not a pair of mittens in the house that fit him! So I knitted a pair.

And then we got COLD. It's been freezing, -28 or -29 on several days. Not funny, Not funny at all. Sys complained his room was cold to sleep (it was, because he kept opening the balcony door in his room to use the telescope to see the moon and stars) so he needed another blanket. Well, I didn't have any extra, but I knew I had some squares I knitted eons ago with double yarn, found them and stiched them together. Now he has a huge and thick and WARM blanket.

Cats have a serious case of cottage fever because it's been way too cold for them to go outside. Of course little brother have tried every day to go out, but he has to turn on his heels right at the doorstep. So he's been stripping Christmas tree out of it's decorations. The tree was tied up to the ceiling so there was no danger of it to fall, but we did lost few glittery balls to 'Suma's teeth.

And the endless war on cat litter! Oh dear.

'Suma has not been able to go on for long walks. One day we made it to the post boxes but that's it. Her feet are freezing so I will not make her to go any further. It's a bit warmer in the woods, so we have managed to have some 15 min walks every day. She's so bored, even playing with Christmas tree decorations don't perk her up anymore.

November

As sad it was, it wasn't totally unexpected. My grandmother died peacefully with her daughters by her side and the funeral will be on Saturday. Just a small gathering, there isn't much older generation left, grandmother's brother will not be coming, he lives in Sweden and is too poorly to travel. Ballbearers are decided, and my mother wanted everyone to bring just one rose for grandma. There will be a heart of pink roses on the coffin, grandmother loved pink.

If pallbearers are capable - there's a lot of covid going rounds, my brother just got sick, his girlfriend is healing, all boys at home have it now (I've skipped it so far) and hb is having mild symptoms but we've run out of tests. I need to go and buy some more tests, but I have to go to the town to buy them because our shops and pharmacy had run out of tests, too. Whole school is having covid now.

We were supposed to go shopping for trousers for boys, but of course couldn't. I know grandma wouldn't mind boys going in old trousers, but they are all grown over their old trousers and they look just... ridiculous. Not shaggy, not poor, not even like Sunak with his short trousers. I don't know, if nothing changes I need to go by myself? and hope for the best. Everything else is ready.

My mother in law fainted at the nursing home, she was attending to afternoon coffee break at the communal room. Got to hospital in an ambulance, got tested and scanned - she's having some "shadows" in heart (that's what she said) but there's nothing that can/will be done. She should continue on going her daily walks and to try to be as active as possible. I know she has had her diet changed a lot during the summer because she's eating FODMAP food now and although it is good for her gut it is not good for her overall wellbeing, she's cut out a lot of vegetables and not brought any new ones to her diet. Because I'm not her daughter, so I have no say on things. Once everyone at home is cleared of covid I'll go and see her if I can find anything I can do. But, she's 90, and stubborn as ever.

(I know FODMAP is recommended by many, but it shouldn't be just cutting out unsuitable foods)